Big decisions ahead for the SVL in terms of membership, divisions; combined Lapeer High School wants to join

By Dan Chalk chalk@mdn.net

Published 2:00 am, Sunday, September 1, 2013

Just one year after the Saginaw Valley League expanded from 10 to 15 schools, executive director Pete Ryan and the league are faced with more membership changes, and the possibility of reconsidering their two-division alignment.

First, the SVL lost longtime member Flint Northern when the school was closed this summer.

Then, Flushing — which had just joined the SVL a year ago —applied for and was accepted into the Flint Metro League starting with the 2014-15 school year.

The FML had an opening because current members Lapeer East and Lapeer West will leave the league a year from now because they will be merging into one high school and their projected combined enrollment of about 1,600 will be too high in comparison to other FML schools.

Finally, as a result, the future Lapeer High School has applied for membership in the SVL starting in 2014-15.

Ryan, who’s also the district athletics director for Saginaw Township Community Schools, said that Flushing’s reasons for leaving the SVL to join the FML are mainly the fact that it will have to travel less, and that the schools in the league have similar enrollments to that of Flushing.

“Primarily for (Flushing), travel (in the FML) will much closer than it is for them in the SVL,” Ryan said. “And size-wise, they’re a really good fit for that (Flint Metro) League.”

Next year, the FML will include Flint-area schools Flint Kearsley, Ortonville Brandon, Clio, Fenton, Holly, Linden, and Swartz Creek, along with Flushing.

Another 2012 SVL newcomer, Flint Carman-Ainsworth, also applied for the FML at the same time as Flushing, but the league chose Flushing over Carman-Ainsworth. The FML has decided to have only an eight-school league starting next year.

After Flushing leaves the SVL, the league will consist of a North Division of Mount Pleasant, Midland High, Dow High, Bay City Western, Bay City Central, Saginaw High, Saginaw Arthur Hill, and Saginaw Heritage; and a South Division of Carman-Ainsworth, Flint Northwestern, Flint Southwestern, Flint Powers, Davison, and possibly Lapeer.

The next step, Ryan said, is for the SVL member schools to weigh the pros and cons and decide whether to accept Lapeer into the league next year.

A major factor is transportation. The distance from Mount Pleasant to Lapeer is 110 miles, and even the drive from Midland to Lapeer is more than 80 miles.

“It’s obviously a talking point,” Ryan said of the distance. “(Lapeer brings) a lot of really good (sports) programs, but the distance from Mount Pleasant and the Midland schools is an issue.

“It’s something we’ll have to discuss as members and see if it’s a good fit for all the schools, and then we’ll move forward from there,” Ryan added.

In terms of Lapeer’s enrollment, Ryan said it is expected to steadily drop so that it would eventually be similar to that of the current SVL schools.

And along with the question of Lapeer’s application for admission, Ryan said there’s a question of whether the SVL should continue with its divisional format that was just introduced a year ago when the league expanded.

“Many of our sports have fewer than 12 teams, so if that’s the case, it doesn’t make sense to have multiple divisions,” he said.

Another ramification of Flushing’s departure from the SVL next year is that the current co-op programs between Flushing and Carman-Ainsworth in girls’ and boys’ swimming and hockey will no longer exist next year. It remains to be seen whether both of those schools will still have all three of those sports or not.